Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Nip that nickname in the bud.

Sara and I would like to let the world know that if we had wanted to name her Char-Char we would have done that in the first place! Are we wrong to want to have our little one be referred to by her real full name instead of some variant form. This past weekend, Sara and I struggled with what to do with and how to approach our day care center who has adopted various forms truncated "Charlotte" as nicknames to throw around. When I think back to the care that we took in constructing what we felt would be a fitting name [see my post So What's in a Name] it pains me to think that it is all slated to be massacred from close to day one. Are we destined to fight this battle in every step of her lifetime? Have we doomed her to to having a nickname that pays homage to one of the most irritatingly annoying comic relief characters from that abomination of a Star Wars prequel*? Arrrraggghhhh!

Here are just some of the other Charlotte nick-reverences we've seen/heard:
  • Char
  • Cha-Cha
  • Lotty
  • Charlie
  • Tchotchke (who know that that started with a "T"... huh!)
  • Cuccamonga

OK, so I made that last one up, but might as well be in there! I am sure that there are others as well but the steam from my ears is fogging up my glasses too much to see things clearly.

In all honesty, I have no problem if Charlotte gets to an age where she chooses a nickname for herself, but please, let's give it time for her develop it on her own rather than being branded.

Sara approached the daycare center yesterday about the issue and hopefully was able to nip it in the bud. We'll see how it all goes. Hopefully I can shelve this rant until at least elementary school. I guess worse comes to worst, we'll just have to exchange our little Tchotchke's name to something without a nickname like... hmm... Sara!

From Five Feet,
Charles

*Thanks to Sara for burning that Char-Char/Jar-Jar relationship in my head.
Posted by Charles at 6:25 PM
Labels: , ,

4 comments:

  1. cRazYquiLterJuly 21, 2009 at 11:15 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. cRazYquiLterJuly 21, 2009 at 11:17 PM

    Well. If you can straighten out the daycare people, who *should* abide by your wishes and call Charlotte by her full given name, I can tell you from experience that she flat out won't answer to weird variations (Joshie? WHAT?)

    I am also of the personal belief that babies are their whole names (or whatever pet names are in the current rotation). Nicknames seem weird to me until kids are slightly older. I don't know why. I may be broken.

    If you object, you just need to firmly but politely tell people you would prefer she be called by her full given name, especially now when she's just learning what it is! I do see this problem lurking on the horizon for us, as we named Nicholas with the intention of calling him Cole, not Nick.

    This is a really long comment. Sorry

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousJuly 23, 2009 at 8:25 PM

    That's it....from now on I'm calling you chuckie-cheese --L

    ReplyDelete
  4. CharlesJuly 23, 2009 at 8:51 PM

    I wish I knew who the "L" wrote that...

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)